Remember when
T-Mobile used to incessantly mock the competition for ripping off their subscribers with various taxes and fees that didn’t always feel justified and were rarely communicated in an open and clear fashion? Unfortunately, the “Un-carrier” has been
copying all the wrong moves from
Verizon and AT&T in the past couple of years or so while occasionally even going so far as to
make dubious changes to its plans and prices without being inspired by its rivals.
The latest such “updates”
leaked by the always resourceful folks at The Mobile Report are a one-two punch to Magenta’s new and existing prepaid customers that many of you may not be willing to take on the chin and simply move on. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that you can actually do something to change T-Mo’s mind once these upcoming “updates” have been passed on to support reps.
What you can obviously do is find yourself a prepaid operator or service that doesn’t charge a flat $25 “Device Connection” fee, which is actually not very hard. That one-time $25 charge will come into effect on March 21 (which is next week!!!), replacing a much more affordable $10 Prepaid SIM Starter Kit.
That wasn’t even necessary if you were looking to activate a device with eSIM support, but now you’re going to have to pay the 25 bucks no matter what kind of phone you want to “connect” to a prepaid T-Mobile plan. And yes, that goes for current customers wanting to upgrade their old handsets, as well as all-new subscribers.
The second new fee Magenta is planning to add to its prepaid service in the near future is a $5 “in-store payment support charge” that may not sound like a big deal at first. But that’s not a one-time thing, mind you, and you’ll have to take care of it every single time you make an “assisted payment” in a brick and mortar store.
It’s pretty obvious how you can avoid having 5 bucks tacked on to your bill every month, but something tells us certain users will not switch to a digital payment method or AutoPay after this change takes place on April 25 either. For what it’s worth,
T-Mobile claims in its internal documentation that the vast majority of prepaid customers have already ditched in-store payments, which still doesn’t make it kosher that the minority of people who haven’t gone digital are being punished.
